Super Tuesday Cartoon And Commentary - The Reckoning (UPDATED)

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(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

As Charles Pierce notes in the pre-mortem excerpted below, the long- awaited reckoning of the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Shooter's Party will likely begin with today's Super Tuesday primary voting taking place in 11 states.

The panic over this reckoning is deep and wide among Republicans who, up until now, have been perfectly happy to ride the seething, misdirected resentment of right- wing white folks into control of both houses of Congress, countless governorships and state legislatures, and the occasional Presidency.  The angst was palpable in the past 24 hours, just in the confines of the once great Washington Post's Bezos Bugle's stable of right- wing hacks.

Michael "Mushroom Cloud" Gerson, speechwriter for the Bush assministration:

We have seen the lengths to which Trump will go to threaten and intimidate his enemies, armed mainly with social media. It seems reckless beyond reason — reckless with the republic itself — to arm him with the immense power of the executive branch. Consider the inherently threatening quality of the words “Trump’s military” or “Trump’s FBI” or “Trump’s IRS.” The grant of vast influence to a leader of such vindictive temperament is utterly frightening. 

Ed Rogers, Republican lobbyist and consultant:

Again, I missed the Trump phenomenon. And I continue to not understand it. I’m afraid that in order for me to “get it,” I’ll have to assume some things about my fellow Republicans that I have spent decades denying. But for the time being, I hold fast to the belief that the vast majority of Republicans are not stupid, are not racist and, if anything, their biggest sin is that they are sometimes too committed to honorable core principles to work effectively within a government that requires compromise.

Jennifer Rubin, Republican hack and unrequited lover of Willard Romney and Paul Ryan, on Republicans who said they could support Rump if nominated:

These are not bad people, nor do they support Trump. But they fail to recognize that there are only two choices in 2016: Someone other than Trump gets the nomination, or there is no unified GOP (at the least for the 2016 presidential race, and perhaps permanently). Ironically, it is sometimes more difficult to recognize a tectonic shift is underway than it is to recognize small shifts. The former prompts denial and a desire to cling to what is known, even if it what is known is on the verge of extinction.

Of course, none of their analyses come to grips with the fact that their party has been going off the rails, with their avid encouragement, for going on 40 years now.  They're shocked, shocked! that this uncouth fellow Trump, with his malevolent bullhorn, is undoing all the work of their very successful multi- decades- long dog whistling.   If they weren't such awful people, it would be almost pitiful.

UPDATE:  Here's a look at a Rump- friendly rabble- rousing outfit and the deep thoughts of some of their vicious Stormtrumper readers.

Republican "Establishment" Doesn't Like When Chickens Come Home To Roost

We offer more proof today that at least part of the Republican "establishment" is in serious panic mode and is going after the candidate most representative of the id of the Republican "base" (i.e., the "salad forks" vs. the "pitchforks").  As noted below, however, Donald "Rump" Trump is still given an audience on GOP-TV (a.k.a., Fox "News"), having "cleared the air" with chairman Roger "Jabba the Nut" Ailes.  It's a glorious, ongoing trainwreck that's freeing the chickens to come home to roost.

Michael "Mushroom Cloud" Gerson whistles past the graveyard while simultaneously calling for a frontal assault on Rump Trump:

Trump will flame out. And since he is constitutionally incapable of accepting fault, he will blame the GOP for arson. As someone prone to conspiracy theories — on presidential birth records, vaccines and the scheming Mexican government — Trump is probably gathering string to prove a plot against him involving Megyn Kelly, the GOP establishment and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. So he is keeping his third-party options open.  [snip]

The best, maybe only, option is to ensure that his poll numbers deflate quickly, making it obvious that a lavish campaign for the Republican nomination and, later, the difficult task of getting on 50 ballots will end in humiliation. This will require establishment Republicans to stop playing political bank shots off his rise and make clear he has moved beyond the boundaries of serious and civil discourse. And it will require conservative populists to recognize that an alliance with Trump is effectively tying their movement to an anvil (the RedState summit disinvitation is a good start).   (our emphasis)

We don't recall Mushroom Cloud ever rising up in righteous indignation when fellow right-wingers "moved beyond the boundaries of serious and civil discourse" in viciously attacking President Obama over the past 6- plus years.  Or in their baseless attacks on Hillary Clinton.  Apparently for Mushroom Cloud, "serious and civil discourse" only applies to wingnut interactions.  Good to know.

Meanwhile, at the once great Washington Post's Bezos Bugle's kiddie table, former "Millionaire Mitt" Romney fan girl and neocon warrior- with- other- people's- children Jennifer Rubin takes a moment away from the "nasty rhetoric" she normally trains on President Obama to accuse Rump's lower- profile predecessors of ... well, remember, Rubin has YOOGE irony and self-awareness deficits:

Trump now threatens to gobble up Trumpism’s antecedents. The beast has turned on them. RedState founder Erick Erickson, who for years peddled in nasty rhetoric and defamed the “establishment,” discovers, “Listen, if having common decency to other people makes you part of the establishment, I guess I am. I mean, if you can’t be nice to someone who asks you a tough question, then okay, I guess I am. If being a member of the establishment is recognizing that there are bounds you shouldn’t cross, and if you do you should apologize, then I guess I am.” Well, isn’t that rich? Erickson would like to blame the Republican Party for Trump, but the responsibility lies with him and others who promoted this style of politics and discourse for years.

Serious conservatives who dabbled in Trumpism now see its full flowering. Less serious conservative racketeers (e.g., the groups who cheered the shutdown) see the limitations of its appeal and its embarrassing attributes. And GOP primary voters may have been roused from their slumber, aware there is, as former Texas governor Rick Perry put it, a  “cancer” growing on conservatism.  (our emphasis)

As a "conservative racketeer" herself (be honest with yourself, Jen), Rubin won't acknowledge that so-called "establishment" Republicans express the same out- of- the- mainstream views as Rump Trump, albeit in dog whistles and focus group- tested language.

Speaking of Rick "Oops" Perry, what's become of the candidate dearest to Rubin's heart?

Former Texas governor Rick Perry's presidential campaign is no longer paying its staff because fundraising has dried up, while his cash-flush allied super PAC is preparing to expand its political operation to compensate for the campaign's shortcomings, campaign and super PAC officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday.

Oops.

Trump: The "Rough Beast" Created By Republicans

This is E.J. Dionne, Jr., on the sudden rush by Republican politicians to take down blowhard wig-stand Donald "Rump" Trump, a gas giant they once courted assiduously:

The problems that bother us most are the ones we bring on ourselves. This is why Republicans are so out of sorts with Donald Trump. The party created the rough beast it is now trying to slay.

Like Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry Butchmeup" Graham (R-Secessionland):

“Hey, didn’t this guy call me, like, four years ago?” he [Trump] asked about Graham. According to the Republicans’ provocateur-in-chief, Graham wanted a “good reference” to “Fox & Friends,” a show on the network that conservatives revere, and then to know whether “he could come and see me for some campaign contribution.” 

How about future Lenscrafters spokesmodel Rick "Oops" Perry:

Trump struck again on Wednesday, tweeting a picture with another of his Donald-come-lately critics, former Texas governor Rick Perry, “in my office last cycle playing nice and begging for my support and money. Hypocrite!”

Then we've got Republican "Elder Statesman" Millionaire Mitt Romney:

... When he accepted Trump’s endorsement during the 2012 Republican primaries, Mitt Romney was giddy about how cool it was to be with the man who emblazons his name on gaudy hostelries.

“There are some things that you just can’t imagine happening in your life,” Romney enthused when he got Trump’s backing at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. “This is one of them. Being in Donald Trump’s magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. I am so honored and pleased.”

As Dionne notes, this kissing up was going on at a time when Rump was in full birther mode, continuing to question President Obama's citizenship long after definitive proof had been provided. Dionne concludes it's hard to be sympathetic when the beast starts biting the hands that have fed it for so long:

Sorry, but the real Donald Trump has been in full view for a long time, and Perry’s new glasses can’t explain his newfound clarity. I don’t credit Trump with much. But he deserves an award for exposing the double-standards of Republican politicians. They put their outrage in a blind trust as long as Trump was, in Perry’s words, “throwing invectives in this hyperbolic rhetoric out there” against Obama and the GOP’s other enemies. (our emphasis)

Rump's impact on this and future election cycles may well be that, in voicing the ugly id of the Republican Party, he shows what a collection of craven hypocrites the party "leaders" are.